Adjustable garment

ABSTRACT

An adjustable garment such as a vest includes invisible zippers at the side seams of the vest. The zippers define pleats which can be opened or closed by the zippers to expand and contract the vest to alter its size. More particularly, each zipper includes first and second rows of teeth which are operable between interlocking and separated conditions to close and open the zipper in order to close and open the associated pleat.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There are various occasions when individuals desire to wear formal wear.Because those occasions are relatively infrequent, many people rentformal wear rather than purchase it. In addition, cruise ships typicallystock formal wear for rent and thus must maintain inventories of varioussized formal wear to accommodate the different sizes required by theircustomers. This can lead to relatively high overhead to maintain asuitable inventory of garments. The present invention relates to anadjustable garment which can easily be modified to alter the size of thegarment and increase its versatility for use by individuals of differentsizes.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART

Generally, when an individual rents clothing from a formal wear shop,the clothing must be altered to provide an appropriate fit. Alterationsof the garments not only take time but add to the expense of the rental.Moreover, because the alterations are designed to be temporary, so thatthey can quickly be removed when the garment is returned, theyoccasionally come loose or fail, leaving the customer with anill-fitting garment while he or she is attending a function.

The present invention was developed in order to overcome these drawbacksby providing a garment, and particularly a formal wear garment, that isquickly and easily adjusted to the size of the wearer.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention relates to an adjustable garment suchas a vest which has seams extending from the bottom of the openings forthe wearer's arms to the bottom of the vest on either side thereof. Eachseam includes a zipper having first and second rows of teeth which areoperable between interlocking and separated conditions to close and openthe zipper. A pleat is provided between the rows of teeth of eachzipper. When the zippers are open, the pleats are open and the garmenthas a larger size. When the zippers are closed, the pleats are closedand the garment has a smaller size.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, each zipper is hidden by thefabric of the garment adjacent to the seam.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent froma study of the following specification, when viewed in the light of theaccompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a front plan view of an adjustable garment according to theinvention;

FIG. 2 is a partial plan view of a zipper for the adjustable garment ofFIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a partial plan view of a seam of the adjustable garment ofFIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring first to FIG. 1, the adjustable garment according to theinvention will be described. As shown therein, an example of a suitablegarment is a vest 2. It will be appreciated that the invention is notlimited to vests and may be incorporated into other garments requiringsizing adjustments such as jackets, dresses, trousers, and the like.

The vest is formed by pieces of fabric which are cut to a desiredconfiguration and stitched together. More particularly, the vest of FIG.1 comprises a rear fabric or panel 4 and two front fabrics or panels 6,8 which are joined with the rear panel 4 by stitching at side seams 10,12 and top seams 14, 16. Openings 18, 20 are formed between the panelsthrough which the arms of the wearer pass. The front panels are joinedin a conventional manner by buttons 22 on one panel which pass throughbutton holes in the other front panel.

A zipper 24 is connected with the vest adjacent to each side seam 10,12. More particularly, as shown in FIG. 2, each zipper includes a pairof tapes 26, 28 having rows of teeth 30, 32 connected therewith. As isknown in the art, a slider 34 is used to connect and disconnect theteeth. A pull tab 36 is connected with the slider so that the user maydisplace the slider upwardly and downwardly to connect and disconnectthe teeth, respectively.

The tapes 26 and 28 are stitched to the fabric. More particularly, thetapes are spaced a sufficient distance apart to define a pleat orgathered area 38 of the fabric. When the zipper teeth are disconnected,the zipper is in an open condition so that the pleat is also open. Whenthe zipper slider 34 is displaced to the closed condition, the teeth 30,32 are brought together and interconnected. This in turn draws thefabric together to close the pleat. Thus, the zipper is operable toenlarge or narrow the pleat in order to extend or contract the vest.With zippers on each side of the vest, the size of the vest can beadjusted incrementally depending on the position of the zipper. Thesizes of the pleats defined by the zippers are preferably determined sothat the vest can be altered between conventional sizes. For example, anadjustable garment can include fabric panels cut and stitched to definea size medium vest when the pleats are in the open condition. When thezippers are operated to close the pleats, the vest will be adjusted to asize small. Thus, each garment can be adjusted between two adjacentsizes. Another vest can be cut and stitched to define a size extralarge, with the zippers being operable to adjust the vest to a sizelarge.

According to a preferred embodiment, the zippers on either side of thevest are invisible zippers. That is, the zippers are covered by a layerof fabric 40 as shown in FIG. 3 where the zipper, not shown, is in theclosed condition. The associated pleat is also closed resulting in aportion of the fabric being folded over as at 42.

While in accordance with the provisions of the Patent Statutes thepreferred forms and embodiments of the invention have been illustratedand described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art thatvarious changes may be made without deviating from the inventiondescribed above.

1. An adjustable garment, comprising (a) at least one piece of fabrichaving edges which are joined together to form a seam; (b) a zipperconnected with said fabric adjacent to said seam to define a pleat, saidzipper comprising first and second rows of teeth which are operablebetween interlocking and separated conditions to close and open saidzipper in order to close and open said pleat, thereby altering the sizeof the garment.
 2. An adjustable garment as defined in claim 1, whereinsaid garment includes a pair of seams on opposite sides thereof, eachseam including a zipper.
 3. An adjustable garment as defined in claim 2,wherein said zippers comprise hidden zippers, each of said hiddenzippers being covered by said fabric adjacent to said seam.
 4. Anadjustable garment as defined in claim 3, wherein said garment comprisesa vest, said seams being arranged beneath arm openings in said vest andextending generally vertically downward to a bottom edge of said vest.5. An adjustable garment as defined in claim 4, wherein each pleatdefined by each zipper has a width corresponding to a half-size of saidvest, whereby when both zippers are in an open condition, said vest hasa first size and when both zippers are closed, said vest has a secondsize which is smaller than said first size.